BRIEF PROFILE
Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Reading (UK) where he has worked since 2013. His research interests centre on two key strands: (1) enhancing the effectiveness and enjoyment of mathematics learning (e.g., through the use of storytelling), and (2) implementing pedagogical interventions at scale to support evidence-informed policymaking. The combined value of his grant portfolio across these two research strands currently stands at £600,000+.
In 2017, he founded the non-profit research-based MathsThroughStories.org initiative whose website offers a wide range of valuable and free on-line resources designed to help teachers and parents globally confidently enrich children’s mathematics learning through storytelling. The website has now been viewed over two million times by more than half a million teachers and parents from 220 countries around the world. In 2019, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai launched the world's first international mathematical story writing competition, called the Young Mathematical Story Authors (YMSA) competition. To date, it has attracted entries from more than 5,000 students (aged 4-16 years old) from more than 30 countries around the world. Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has also delivered his Maths Through Stories training to over 5,000 pre-service and in-service teachers across the UK and internationally (including but not limited to the USA, Norway, Ghana, the Maldives and across the South East Asian region). He actively engages with policymakers by working with them to support the national implementation of his Maths Through Stories approach in different countries.
Between 2023 and 2025, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was on secondment as an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Policy / What Works Innovation Fellow at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in London, where he investigated tangible strategies to help education researchers become more successful in recruiting and retaining schools in their randomised controlled trials (RCTs). As part of the Fellowship’s Knowledge Exchange phase, he spent around two months based at the UNESCO and OECD headquarters in Paris, as well as the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Trakulphadetkrai's additional role at the University of Reading's Institute of Education included serving as the IoE's Director of Research Communications, the Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research Studies (PhD) and the Deputy Director of the EdD programme. Externally, he previously served as the Co-Convenor of the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and as an executive committee member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) and the UK Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM). He also served as Chair of the British Congress of Mathematics Education’s (BCME) Communications Committee as well as Co-Editor of the Mathematical Association’s (MA) Primary Mathematics Journal.
Prior to joining the University of Reading, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was part of a research team at the UCL Institute of Education (University of London), contributing to a €2 million European Union-funded research project, called ‘Creative Little Scientists (CLS): Enabling Creativity through Science and Mathematics in Preschool and First Years of Primary Education’, which spanned across nine European countries.
Dr. Trakulphadetkrai completed his PhD on primary teachers' beliefs about mathematics, its teaching and learning at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Paul Andrews, and was examined by Dr. Tim Rowland and Professor Stephen Lerman. His first Master's degree in International and Comparative Education was completed at the University of Oxford; and his second Master's degree in International Public Policy at the University of London (University College London). He completed his undergraduate primary teacher training degree with Mathematics specialism and with the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) at the University of London (Brunel University of London).
In 2017, he founded the non-profit research-based MathsThroughStories.org initiative whose website offers a wide range of valuable and free on-line resources designed to help teachers and parents globally confidently enrich children’s mathematics learning through storytelling. The website has now been viewed over two million times by more than half a million teachers and parents from 220 countries around the world. In 2019, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai launched the world's first international mathematical story writing competition, called the Young Mathematical Story Authors (YMSA) competition. To date, it has attracted entries from more than 5,000 students (aged 4-16 years old) from more than 30 countries around the world. Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has also delivered his Maths Through Stories training to over 5,000 pre-service and in-service teachers across the UK and internationally (including but not limited to the USA, Norway, Ghana, the Maldives and across the South East Asian region). He actively engages with policymakers by working with them to support the national implementation of his Maths Through Stories approach in different countries.
Between 2023 and 2025, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was on secondment as an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Policy / What Works Innovation Fellow at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in London, where he investigated tangible strategies to help education researchers become more successful in recruiting and retaining schools in their randomised controlled trials (RCTs). As part of the Fellowship’s Knowledge Exchange phase, he spent around two months based at the UNESCO and OECD headquarters in Paris, as well as the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Trakulphadetkrai's additional role at the University of Reading's Institute of Education included serving as the IoE's Director of Research Communications, the Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research Studies (PhD) and the Deputy Director of the EdD programme. Externally, he previously served as the Co-Convenor of the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and as an executive committee member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) and the UK Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM). He also served as Chair of the British Congress of Mathematics Education’s (BCME) Communications Committee as well as Co-Editor of the Mathematical Association’s (MA) Primary Mathematics Journal.
Prior to joining the University of Reading, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was part of a research team at the UCL Institute of Education (University of London), contributing to a €2 million European Union-funded research project, called ‘Creative Little Scientists (CLS): Enabling Creativity through Science and Mathematics in Preschool and First Years of Primary Education’, which spanned across nine European countries.
Dr. Trakulphadetkrai completed his PhD on primary teachers' beliefs about mathematics, its teaching and learning at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Paul Andrews, and was examined by Dr. Tim Rowland and Professor Stephen Lerman. His first Master's degree in International and Comparative Education was completed at the University of Oxford; and his second Master's degree in International Public Policy at the University of London (University College London). He completed his undergraduate primary teacher training degree with Mathematics specialism and with the Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) at the University of London (Brunel University of London).
GALLERY
The photos in this gallery are part of Dr. Trakulphadetkrai's initiative, called the Global Student Education Forum (GSEF), based at the University of Cambridge. While the Forum now ceases to operate, you can learn more about GSEF here.
